Best I never had
by bechloehuh
Summary: AU - 10 years ago, Beca Mitchell graduated from Barden High School along with her other misfit friends, including her crush at the time; Chloe Beale. The disappointing thing is, now that she's a famous musician, she hasn't spoken to any of these people in years. Not until she gets an invite from Aubrey Posen to the 10 year reunion. (Bechloe one-shot)


**Best I never had.**

**Pairing:** Beca/Chloe

**Summary:** High school AU - 10 years ago, Beca Mitchell graduated from Barden High School along with her other misfit friends, including her crush at the time; Chloe Beale. The disappointing thing is, she hasn't spoken to any of these people in 10 years. Not until she gets an invite to the 10 year reunion.

**Rating:** T (for mild swearing)

A/N: It seems Beca and Chloe have a total personality swap in this, meaning that Beca was popular in high school, and Chloe was shy and kind of a science geek. Anyway, there's another author's note at the end as well, just to explain this when it's finished. It took quite a while to write anyway so I hope you like it!

* * *

**Beca Mitchell.**

Occupation: Famous musician.

Based: L.A but travels around the world almost every other week.

Age: 28 years old.

Amount of twitter followers: 5.6 million.

Well.. Where do I start? Beca Mitchell is, to put it simply, a self-proclaimed bad ass. At least that's what _she_ thinks. Others? Not so much. She first started her singing career three years after she graduated high school, when she was only twenty-one years old. Throughout high school, she learned to play the guitar, piano, accordion (yes, you heard correctly) and the drums.

Beca was popular in high school. Everybody wanted to be friends with her, but only a few people got the pleasure of getting close to the brunette. Yes, Beca liked to push people away (although it wasn't her fault she was like that. Blame her parents' divorce.) She was never good at letting people in, or trusting people. Yes, she had loads of friends, and she was popular, but she had no _true_ friends. No best friends. Just people who wanted to hang out with her to make themselves look good. It seemed Jesse, Stacie, Fat Amy and Chloe were the only people Beca ever let close to her. But still, not _too_ close. Close enough to hear her heartbeat, but yet not close enough for her.

Now, at 28 years old, Beca is still loving life being popular. Everybody loves her. Everybody wants her. But not everybody _gets_ her.

* * *

**Chloe Beale.**

Occupation: Teacher at Baton Rouge Junior School.

Based: Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Age: 28 years old.

Amount of twitter followers: 192. (She's getting there.)

Chloe Beale is neat, organized, and well-mannered. She happens to be in a relationship with the most-popular surgeon in Baton Rouge, and she's happily living with him in a one bed-roomed apartment just fifteen minutes away from the school she works at. Chloe loves kids, but she doesn't want them. Not yet anyway. She thinks that once you have your own children, even though you'll love them unconditionally, they'll put you off other people's kids. Then she'll probably lose her job and, she doesn't want that.

Chloe was a quiet, unspoken girl in high school. Seemingly completely opposite to Beca Mitchell. Yes, she knew who Beca Mitchell was. _Everybody_ knew who Beca Mitchell was. Chloe loved science, and math, and history. She found all these things fascinating, and while Beca would insult them (as Chloe had the utmost pleasure of being in all of Beca's classes), the redhead still found herself crushing on the small brunette. Chloe is a loving and caring person. She's not that hard to break down, she hasn't got a fortress of brick walls, like Beca has.

She's Beca Mitchell's complete polar opposite. She guesses that's why she was so attracted to the brunette, because opposites attract, right?

* * *

After seeing that she has an email, Beca furrows her brows and taps on her iPhone 5, opening the email which reads "Reunion" in the subject box. Skimming over the text, she finds herself feeling sort of.. excited. Excited to be reunited with her old friends. Excited to be a normal person for a night, where nobody would ambush her and take pictures of her just so they can post it in L.A weekly.

**Dear class of 2003.**

**I, Aubrey Posen, have organized a 10 year reunion for the Barden High School class of 2003 graduates. The reunion will be held at Hotel Indigo, Baton Rouge, on the 17th August, 2013. The meet and greet will be at 4pm, within that time do what you will. Depending on what time you wish to leave, the event will end when the room is empty. If you decide to stay in a hotel room, you will have to pay $80 for the night, including breakfast in the morning.**

**I hope to see you all there. If you are able to attend, please contact me by the 1st August, so we know how many of you are coming.**

**Thank you, and I hope I'll be seeing you soon!**

**Dr. A. S. Posen.**

"Dr. A. S. Posen? What a snob."

"What was that, B?"

The brunette looks up from her phone to her manager, Mark, with a questioning look on his face.

"Nothing, sorry. I just got an invite to my school reunion." she says, putting her phone back in her pocket and picking her guitar up again.

"You gonna go?" he asks as she fiddles with the strings on her guitar.

"Eh, we'll see."

* * *

Turns out that she does decide to go.

And she almost regrets it, especially when she pulls up in her car to see Stacie Conrad walking into the Hotel building with a man, arm linked with his as she smiles up at him and places a kiss on his lips. She scrunches her nose up at the sight and all she can think is, _**how the hell has Stacie settled down, when I haven't even been in a relationship that's lasted over two months?**_

But nope, there's no turning back now, so Beca gets out of her car, taking her sunglasses off of her eyes, and looks at her watch. **3:56pm.** Four minutes early. Aubrey should be proud.

She locks her car and walks to the entrance of the hotel, where she immediately sees the familiar face - and hears the familiar voice - of Fat Amy.

"Beca Mitchell!" and then strong arms wrap around her midsection and her feet aren't touching the ground anymore.

"Amy, put me down!" she giggles, trying to wriggle away from the blonde's strong hold on her.

She greets everybody. Jesse, Stacie, Fat Amy, Cynthia Rose, Benji, Luke; the people she was rather close with in high school. Then she greets the others, who she recognizes from her different classes; Jessica, Ashley, Denise, Mary-Elise, and a few others as they all pile in. But surprisingly, there's no Aubrey or Chloe yet. She checks her phone: 4:06pm.

But then as she looks up, she sees her.

A flash of bright red, wavy hair. Her petite, five foot five frame, dressed in a blue checked dress and blue heels - and Beca sort of feels out-of-place with her skinny jeans, combat boots and leather jacket on.

The redhead walks over to a table, not having noticed Beca, and the brunette takes a deep breath as she prepares to talk to the woman she hasn't seen in 10 years. Before she goes over though, she tries to think of something to say to Chloe. _**I mean, what do you say to someone you haven't seen in a decade? Someone who you wrote a song about? Someone you could have easily fallen in love with all those years ago. Someone who's probably forgot who you are. What do you say?**_

Chloe removes her eyes from Aubrey as she feels a presence at the side of her, and her breath catches in her throat when she sees who it is.

_**Breathe, Chloe.**_

"I believe this is yours." Beca says, handing a twenty-dollar note to Chloe. The redhead eyes it suspiciously, turning it in her hand as if to check if Beca has put anything weird or unusual on it. But it's clean.

"What's this for?"

"I borrowed it from you in junior year and I never gave it back."

The redhead laughs lightly, holding the note out to give it back to Beca. "I don't.. That was years ago, I don't need it."

"See that's where your wrong," Beca starts, pulling her chair in to get comfy as she faces the redhead. "What if you look in your purse now and realize that you left your money at home? That means you won't have any money to buy drinks all night. Or you'll have no money to get home, or pay for the hotel room, or pay for a cab home tomorrow."

The redhead smiles and nods, and Beca returns the smile easily. Then Chloe opens her purse - noticing that yes, her money is in there, thank God - and puts the twenty in the notes section.

"And twenty dollars is gonna buy me all that, is it?" Chloe asks in an amused tone, and Beca laughs, shaking her head and remembering that Chloe has always been smarter of her.

Then Aubrey changes the subject, and they all delve into a deep discussion; something about Fellini or Warhol, Beca's not really paying attention. She looks at Chloe, the redhead completely unaware as she argues to Aubrey that Casanova was _obviously_ a better film than City of Women.

She finds herself noticing the smallest, most pointless things about the redhead. The way that when she blinks, her eyelashes don't just close and open like normal people, they_ flutter_, like a butterfly's wings, or a fairy taking flight. She notices the way she takes a breath every few seconds, breathless from talking too fast. The way she licks her lips when she stops talking, just to make sure they're still there. The way her slender fingers wrap around the neck of the champagne glass as she takes a sip; the smallest of sips, Beca notices. She watches the way she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear every time it falls out-of-place. The way she bites her lip when Aubrey speaks, or the way her eyes dart between each person on the table as they take it in turns to show their input. She notices the way her eyebrows furrow in to a small frown when someone says something stupid - like how Benji thinks that Fellini is overrated. Yes, she notices all these things, and only then does she realize that she's been staring at the redhead for a good fifteen minutes now.

An hour later, Beca and Chloe are both sat alone, catching up with each other.

"So are you staying at the hotel tonight?" Beca asks Chloe, internally wishing that she would say yes.

"No." _Oh.._ "My boyfriend's waiting up for me."

Boyfriend. _OH._

"Right, okay. How long have you been together?"

"Um, it's our three-year anniversary next month."

"Three years, huh? My relationships don't even last three months." Beca laughs nervously. "Tell me something though.. You're not dating that asshole Tom from High School, are you? Please tell me you're not."

Chloe laughs, shaking her head. "No, his name is Josh. He's a really great guy."

And then Beca asks, "do you love him?" and Jesus Christ, she wishes that she had a filter, just for tonight.

And it shocks Beca that Chloe doesn't answer. Instead the redhead just smiles and takes a sip of her drink. "How did you remember Tom anyway?" Chloe asks instead, and Beca takes the hint to leave it at that.

"How do I _not_ remember him? Remember when I found you crying behind the science block because he moved to Austin?"

"You remember that?"

"Of course I remember it, Chloe. You cried into my shoulder for a good two and a half hours." Beca smirks.

"I didn't.. I didn't think you would remember." Chloe looks away momentarily, but Beca doesn't take her eyes off of the redhead.

"Does he still live in Austin?"

"I'm not sure," Chloe sighs, "I haven't spoken to him since then. And Beca notices the way Chloe seems to deflate, as if she still thinks about the man every now and again. As if she still misses him. As if she still loves him. So Beca changes the subject.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

* * *

Chloe Beale is not a liar. Chloe Beale doesn't even tell the slightest of white lies, so that's why she's now questioning herself when she tells Beca that she thinks her song _**'Best I never had'**_ is the best song she's ever heard. The truth is, she hasn't listened to it. She hasn't listened to it because she's scared. She hasn't listened to _any_ of Beca's music voluntarily, because she's scared. She's scared of falling in love with_ the brunette's voice_ all over again, just like she did in high school. Absolutely terrified of falling in love with _the brunette_ again, just like she did in high school.

"I know you haven't listened to it, Chloe." Beca smirks as she leans against the wall outside the hotel. After a twenty-minute walk, catching up and talking about their separate lives and what has happened since high school, they find themselves back at the hotel where it's getting quite late and already, people are on the verge of being very drunk. "Trust me, I'd know if you'd listened to it."

And Chloe wonders what the hell Beca means by that, but the brunette just sighs and carries on talking in a hushed, low voice.

"You're one of the few people here who's talking to me because of who I was, not who I am now." is all Beca says before she walks inside, a confused Chloe hot on her heel.

They walk back into the room where the reunion is actually taking place, and see that there's some photos at the other side of the room. They both walk over to them, preparing to see the worst photo's of themselves when they were younger.

It surprises both of them when there's no photos of Chloe.

But obviously, there are loads of photos of Beca.

"I can't believe there's no photos of me, it's like I didn't even go to school with you all." Chloe laughs, moving around the display to where Beca is standing. The brunette is looking at a photo, just at eye level.

"I found you." Beca smiles, not taking her eyes off of the image.

It's a photo of them.

_Together._

Chloe is sat leaning against a tree, her knees up with a book rested on them. She's wearing a pink t-shirt, blue skinny jeans, and her bright red hair is pulled in to a bun. The brunette is sat beside her, her big headphones hung around her neck, and she's looking at Chloe. Not looking - gazing. She's gazing at the woman intently, adoringly, lovingly. The first thing that Beca noticed when she saw the picture though, was the bright yellow shoes that the redhead had on her feet.

"Who took this photo?" Chloe asks, remembering that there was only a few times when Chloe and Beca would sit outside together like they were on that particular photo. "Jesus Christ, look at my shoes. I forgot about those shoes."

The redhead laughs, and Beca joins her. "I like the yellow shoes. They're funny." Beca says, leaving it at that.

* * *

A few hours later, at around 11:30pm, everyone decides to go to Benny's. It's a late-night diner just a few minutes down the road from the hotel. A lot of memories were made in that diner, 10 years ago. Many memories that have stayed there. Memories that are unforgettable, yet it kind of hurts to think about them.

Everyone was pretty drunk when they arrived at the diner, and Chloe and Beca both immediately went to a seat and sat down opposite each other. (Listening to Unicycle do a drunken rendition of Feeling Good by Nina Simone.)

The diner was dark but with a good ambiance, with a stage to the left hand side, and typical red and white seats on each booth. The counter was quite small, and there was pictures and different memorabilia scattered on every inch of every wall. It was a stereotypical American music diner, with old music playing in the background, sometimes people would get up and sing. Like tonight. The owner, Craig, had put the karaoke on just for the class of '03 Barden High School graduates. It was like he was expecting them to come here, seen as his diner was the most popular diner for school kids from Barden. And seen as the school was fairly small, he made note of almost every student who came in. Of course, he recognized Beca.

_Everyone_ recognized Beca.

"Hey, Beca?" a voice says from behind the brunette, and she turns her head to the right-hand side of her to see a blonde woman looking at her with a piece of paper in her hand.

"Hey."

"Uh, could you sign this? My cousin doesn't believe I went to school with you and you're her favourite person ever. She's just graduated and she's been saving to go to one of your shows."

"Sure I can." Beca smirks as she takes the pen and piece of paper from the woman. "What's she called?"

"Emily."

She signs it -

_**Hey Emily, your cousin's a cool chick!  
Congratulations on graduating, and I hope you like your gift from me.  
P.s. you're on the second row. **_  
_**Beca Mitchell**_

"What gift?" the woman asks when she reads over the note.

The brunette reaches into her bag and pulls out two tour tickets, and hands them to the woman.

"What?! Beca, you don't have to-"

"No, no, it's fine. My manager told me to give out some free tickets anyway. It's no problem."

She immediately pulls Beca in to a hug, and Chloe watches with wide-eyes at the situation, grinning at Beca's generosity. The blonde thanks her again, gives her another hug, and Beca watches her as she walks away with a bounce in her step, clutching the tickets and the autograph in her hand.

"That was really nice, Bec." Chloe smiles genuinely at her, and Beca's heart flutters.

"Yo Mitchell, they have _never had!_"

Beca turns around to the source of the sound, seeing Unicycle stood on stage with a beer in one hand and the karaoke book in the other hand. She sighs, realizing that _obviously_ Craig would have her song on the karaoke list, just to embarrass her.

She nods politely, the turns back around to see Chloe smiling at her.

"Sing it Beca!" Jesse shouts from the other side of the room.

"Yeah, Beca, sing it!" Amy yells.

"Guys, who wants Beca to sing?"

She rolls her eyes when she hears the whole room burst into a fit of cheers. There's yelling and whistling from every direction as she looks around, seeing every single person in the room cheering her on. She turns back to Chloe to see the redhead clapping and laughing with a huge grin on her face. She sighs, standing up and if possible, the cheering get's even louder.

When the brunette reaches the stage, Uni hands her the microphone and then the music starts. She takes a deep breath, but then notices that the music used for the karaoke has been tampered with and well, it's fucking messed up.

"I can't-guys, I can't do this." Everyone boos at her, and she smirks. "Craig, you got a guitar?" and then everybody cheers again.

Once Craig has fetched the guitar and she has got a stool from the bar, she sits down and tunes the instrument to suit the song. While she's doing this, Craig get's a mic stand and puts the microphone on it so it's level with her mouth. She shifts in her seat, and then she starts to play.

It's a soft melody, and she looks out into the diner to see Chloe sitting alone in her booth. She's smiling brightly while she plays with her hair, and the brunette starts to sing, putting as much effort into every single syllable like she does at her normal shows.

_**I've been gone for so long now, **__**chasing everything that's new,**_

_**I have forgotten how I got here, I have not forgotten you.**_

_**We were just children, with our eyes opening,**_

_**and you were all that I could see.**_

_**You came close enough to know my heartbeat but,**_

_**still not close enough for me.**_

And then she starts the chorus, keeping her eyes glued to Chloe's, hoping that she get's the message, after all these years.

_**Through the good times and the bad, you were the best I never had,**_

_**the only chance I wish I had to take.**_

_**There was no writing on the wall, no warning signs to follow,**_

_**I know now, and I just can't forget,**_

_**you're the best I never had.**_

Chloe takes a deep breath, feeling a fluttering feeling inside her stomach at the way Beca is singing straight at her. Looking straight into her eyes as she puts one hundred and ten percent in to the song. The song that Chloe hadn't heard up until now.

_**In this motel, way past midnight,**_

_**when I'm bluer than a bruise.**_

_**And you come drifting in through the half-light,**_

_**in your funny yellow shoes.**_

And now Chloe knows exactly what Beca meant when she said that she'd know if Chloe had heard it or not.

We were just children.

Best I _never_ had.

The chance I wish I had to take

The funny yellow shoes.

_**And I hope that's you standing at my doorway.**_

Because the song is about her.

_**That's the scratching of your key.**_

_**And I hope this song I'm singing somehow finds you,**_

_**my letter to leave.**_

_**Through the good times and the bad, you were the best I never had,**_

_**the only chance I wish I had to take.**_

_**There was no writing on the wall, no warning signs to follow,**_

_**I know now, and I just can't forget,**_

_**you're the best I never had.**_

Everyone applauds the brunette as she stands up and places the guitar back in its case and Craig goes to put it in the back, patting her on the shoulder and giving her a warm smile. She grins as she descends the stairs, everybody still clapping and cheering for her as she walks over to sit next to Chloe in their booth.

"I didn't.." Chloe starts but she doesn't exactly know what she's trying to say. So she just stops mid-sentence and smiles shyly at the brunette.

"Yeah." Beca nods, taking a swig of her beer that she left on the table before she got up to sing.

"I didn't know the song was about me."

"I wrote it in Barden."

"You did?" Chloe asks, snapping her eyes from her glass of wine to look into Beca's eyes, and only then does she notice just how close Beca is sitting next to her, legs pressed together, _staring_ back at her.

"Yeah, but you had Tom. The guy in Austin."

"Right."

"And now you have Josh. The guy in Baton Rouge."

"Yeah."

"I couldn't tell you, so I wrote it instead. I almost told you at one point." Beca admits, playing with the sticker on her beer bottle.

"When?"

"In the parking lot that one time."

"Ahh.." Chloe nods, the corner of her mouth tugging up into a small smile. She remembers that day very well. Her and Beca almost kissed in the empty parking lot after a football game that they had gone to see separately with their own friends, but they all joined as one big group when they went to the diner. The two were inches away when they were interrupted by Jesse. (Beca had never hated her best friend so much that day.) Obviously though, Beca knew that Chloe had Tom, so nothing could ever happen between them two. So she wrote it down in lyrics, and a few years later, decided to share it with the world, which then turned her into a world-wide superstar.

Or something like that.

"I think I better go." Chloe whispers, a hint of regret in her voice, so the brunette stands up with her.

"I'll walk you out."

The two make their way out at a respectable distance from each other, bidding goodbye to everyone in the process. Eventually, they make it outside and they both walk silently back to the hotel where Beca is staying, and where Chloe will be taking a cab home.

"Another parking lot." Beca laughs as she bumps shoulders with Chloe, and she hears the redhead sigh, despite the little smile that forms on her lips.

"Where do you live?"

The brunette pauses, and slows down to a stop. They're standing just outside of the hotel now and the brunette leans against the wall and puts her hands in her pockets. "Everywhere." Beca says simply.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm touring a lot."

The redhead nods, then she steps forward and Beca's breath catches in her throat when she feels Chloe's hands slip into her pockets. She pulls out Beca's phone, unlocks it and dials her number in, saving it as "Chlo", the name that only Beca calls her.

"Call me whenever you're in town and we can meet up for coffee." Chloe whispers as she places the phone back in Beca's pocket. Except she doesn't remove her hand from the brunette's pockets this time, she keeps them there and her body is pressed against Beca's in a way that makes the moment feel a whole lot more intimate.

"Okay." It's a barely audible whisper from the brunette, which makes the redhead smile slightly. Then the brunette, not able to take their close proximity anymore, leans in closer to Chloe, slowly, until she can feel the redhead's breath against her lips.

But then Chloe says, "I think that's a bad idea," and Beca pulls back only a few centimeters so she can look at Chloe with clear vision.

"Why?"

"Because.. Because I don't want you to kiss me tonight if it means you'll never be able to kiss me again." she pauses, taking a deep breath as tears gloss over her eyes. "You'll be gone tomorrow."

And the only thing she hears is Beca whisper, "but I'm here _now_" before smooth, full lips crash against hers in a soft, heartfelt kiss.

And Beca finds herself thinking that the famous saying is true; "Good things take time. Great things take a long time. And the best things take the longest time." And just because it only took her a couple of days to fall in love with Chloe Beale, doesn't mean it was a bad thing that it took them 10 years to finally have their first kiss. Because it wasn't a bad thing. It was the best thing that's ever happened to her. Yes, it took 10 years but sometimes, things are worth the wait.

And Chloe Beale was _definitely_ worth the wait.

* * *

**A/N: Right, so if you haven't noticed how familiar this story sounds, I got the idea from the movie 10 years. I really liked Reeve's and Elise's story and I just _had_ to make it into a Bechloe fic. If you haven't seen the movie then I recommend watching it. It's great! And it has Channing Tatum in it, girls! (Or guys.)**

**Anyway, I watched the movie months ago but I just kept putting off writing it because 1) I had other stuff to write, 2) I had school work and 3) I had no inspiration to write it. But finally, I wrote it! I would greatly appreciate your opinion on this, good or bad criticism is welcome, I won't get too offended.**

**The song used was Best I never had by Oscar Isaac (he also plays Reeve's in 10 years.)**

**I hope you liked it anyway, thanks for reading!**


End file.
